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DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BY 



REY. DE. E. J. BRECKINRIDG: 

ON THE DAY OF NATIONAL HLTVULIATION, 

January 4, 186ii, at Lexington, Ky. 



(Photographically Seported for the Preshytetian Herald.) 

It is in circumstances, my friends, of 
terrible solemnity, that this great nation 
presents herself in an attitude of humil- 
iation before the Lord God of Hosts ; in 
circumstances of great solemnity, that 
she stands before the bar of all surround- 
ing nations, under that universal public 
opinion which gives fame or stamps with 
infamy, and hardly less solemn than both 
is her attitude at the bar of distant ages, 
and especially our own posterity, that 
awful tribunal whose decrees can be re- 
versed only by the decree of God. 

It is the first of these three aspects, 
either passing by in silence or touching 
very slightly the other two, that I am to 
consider before you now. And what I 
ehall chiefly attempt to show is, that our 
duties can never be made subordinate to 
our passions without involving us in ruin; 
and that our rights can never be set above 
our interests without destroying both. 

In taking this direction, let us bear in 
mind that the proclamation of the Chief 
Magistrate of the Republic which calls 
U3 to this service, asserts, in the first 
place, that ruin is impending over our 
national institutions; and asserts, in the 
Bccond place, that so far as appears to 
him, no human resources remain that arc 
adequate to save them; and, in the third 
place, that the whole nation, according to 
his judgment, ought to prostrate itself 
before God and cry to Him for deliver- 
ance. Upon this I have to say, in the 
great name of God, and by the authority 
of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, 
these two things : 1. That national judg- 
ments never come except by reason of 
national sins ; nor are they ever turned 
aside except upon condition of repent- 
ance for tlie sins which produo;^Q them ; 



and, 2. That repentance for sin, as it i« 
the absolute and universal, so it is the in- 
fallible condition of divine pardon and 
acceptance, not only in the case of indi- 
viduals, but more obviously still and more 
immediately in the case of nations, since 
nations, as such, have no existence in a 
future life. Wherefore, if we are in the 
way of fearful evils we are also in the way 
of clear duty, and therein we may hope 
for assured deliverance in the degree, 1. 
That every one will go before another in 
earnest endeavors to rectify in himself all 
that is abominable to God ; and, 2. That 
every one will evince towards others the 
forbearance which he desires that God 
should extend to him. Wherefore, also 
we may boldly say that the remedy from 
God to us need not be expected to man- 
ifest itself by means of political parties, 
or by means of combinations of political 
leaders, or by means of new political 
compacts, or by means of additional legal 
enactments, or by means of more explioit 
constitutional provisions; but that it 
must come from God to us and be made 
manifest through a profound movement 
in the source of all power in free govern- 
ments, namely: 1. In the hearts of indi- 
vidual men turning from their sins, theiff 
follies and their madness ; and, 2. In the 
uprising of an irresistible impulse thus 
crealed,whichoverthe length and breadth 
of the land shall array itself in the power 
of God against every endeavor to bring 
upon us the evils which we are imploring 
God to avert. 

The first and greatest of these evib 
that we beseech God to avert, and that 
we should strive with all our might bo 
prevent, is the annihilation of the natioa 
itself, by tearing it into fragments. Mea 
may talk of rights perpetually and oat- 



^ 



rageously violated ; they may talk of in- united with irresistible national force, 
juries that are obliged to be redressed ; and all directed to the glory of God and 
they may talk of guarantees without the good of man. And this is that glo- 
which they can submit to no further rious estate now declared to be in fearful 
peace ; and there is doubtless much that peril, and which we are called upon to 
has force and much more that is capti- beseech God to preserve unto us. 
vating to ardent minds in such esposi- * On the other hand, the evils of rend- 
tions^f our sad condition; for what ing this nation. Which of the blessings 
problem half so terrible was ever agitated that I have enumerated— and I have 
upon which it was not easy to advance enumerated only those which appeared 
jnuch on every side of it? I will not to me to be the most obvious — which of 
consume the short time allowed to me in these is there, peace, freedom, prosperity, 
examining such views. What I assert in independence, the glory of our example, 
answer to them all, is that we have over- the power to do good and to prevent evil, 
whelming duties and incalculable inter- the opportunity to give permanent effi- 
ests which dictate a special line of con- ciency all over this continent, and in a 
duct, the chief aim of which should be certain degree all over this earth to the 
the preservation of the American Union, Gospel of God ; which of these blessings 
jind therein of the American nation. is there that may not be utterly lost to 

To be more explicit, it seems to me vast portions of the nation ; which of 
that there are inestimable blessings con- them may not be jeoparded over this 
nected with the preservation of our Na- whole continent; which of them is there, 
tional Union and that there are intoler- that may not depart forevermore from us 
able evils involved in its destruction. — and our posterity, in the attempt to de- 
For the blessings — there is the blessing stroy our oneness as a people, and in the 
of peace amongst ourselves; there is the results of that unparalleled self-destruc- 
blessing of freedom to ourselves and to tion ? Besides all this, how obvious and 
our posterity; there is the blessing of in- how terrible' are the evils over and above, 
ternal prosperity secured by that peace which the very attempt begets, and which 
and freedom, never before excelled if at- our after- progress must necessarily make 
t&ined by any poople : there is the bless- permanent if that attempt succeeds. 1. 
ing of our national independence, secured We have already incurred the perils of 
by our invincible strength against all the universal bankruptcy before the first act 
powers of the earth combined ; there is is achieved by one of the least important 
the blessing of our glorious example to of the thirty -three States. 2. We have 
all nations and to all ages; there is the already seen constitutional government, 
blessing of irresistible power to do good bothinitsessenceaad in its form, trampled 
to all peoples, and to prevent evil over the under foot by the convention of that State; 
face of the whole earth ; there is the and all the powers of sovereignty itself, 
blessing of an unfettered Gospel, and an both ordinary and extraordinary, assumed 
open Bible, and a divine Saviour, more by it in such a manner that life, liberty 
and more manifested in our whole na- and property have no more security in 
tional life as that life deepens and spreads. South Carolina than anywhere under 
subduing and possessing the widest and heaven where absolute despotism or ab- 
the noblest inheritance ever given to any solute anarchy prevails, except in the 
people, and overflowing and fructifying personal characters of the gentlemen who 
all peoples besides. It is the problem hold the power. 3. We have already seen 
sought to be solved from the beginning that small community preparing to treat 
of time, and, to say the least, the nighest with foreign nations, and, if need be, in- 
approximation made to its solution, name- troduce foreign armies into this country; 
ly, the complete possession of freedom headlong in the career in which she dis- 



dains all counsel, scorns all consultation 
and all entreaty, and treats all ties, all 
recollections, all existing engagements 
and obligations, as if her ordinance of 
secession had not only denationalized 
that community, but had extinguished 
all its past existence. 4. We see the glo- 
rious flag of this Union torn down and a 
colonial flag floating in its place ; yea, Tve 
Bee thatcommunity thrown into paroxisms 
of rage, and the cabinet at Washington 
thrown into confusion, because in the har- 
bor of Charleston our national flag, in- 
stead of being still further dishonored, 
yet floats over a single tower ! What, 
then, did they expect who sent to the 
harbor of Charleston, to occupy the na- 
tional fortresses there, the son of a com- 
panion of Washington, a hero whose 
yeins are full of revolutionary blood, and 
whose body is covered with honorable 
Bears, won in the service of his country? 
Why did they send that Kentucky hero 
there if they did not intend the place 
they put into his hands to be kept to the 
last extremity? But I need not enlarge 
upon this terrible aspect of what is com- 
ing to us all if the Union is destroyed. 
These are but the beginnings of sorrows. 
The men and parties who initiate the reign 
of lawless passion, rarely escape destruc- 
tion amid the storms they create, but are 
unable to control. Law comes from the 
depth of eternity, and in its sublime sway 
is the nexus of the universe. Institu- 
tions grow ; they are not made. Deso- 
lated empires are never restored ; all his- 
tory furnishes no such example. If we 
desire to perish, all we have to do is to 
leap into this vortex of disunion. If we 
have any just conception of the solemnity 
of this day, let us beseech God that our 
country shall not be torn to pieces ; and 
under the power of these solemnities let 
us quit ourselves like men, in order to 
avert that most horrible of all national 
calamities. 

Let us consider, in the next place, 
those rights, as they are called, by means 
of which, and in their extreme exercise, 
all the calamities that threaten us are to 



be brought upon us at any moment ; nay, 
are to be so brought upon us, that our 
destruction shall be perfectly re^-ular 
perfectly legal, perfectly cons'tituttonal! 
In which case a system like ours, a sys- 
tem the most enduring of all others 
whether we consider the history of the 
past, or the laws which enter into its 
composition ; a system the hardest of all 
others to be deranged, and the easiest of 
all to be readjusted when deranged ; such. 
a system is alleged to have a secret in it, 
designed expressly to kill it, at the op- 
tion of the smallest fragment of it. I 
allude to the claim of the right of nulli- 
fication, and the claim of the right of 
secession, as being Constitutional rights; 
and I desire to explain myself briefly in 
regard to them. 

According to my apprehension, there 
is a thorough and fundamental diiferenee 
between the two. The power of nullifi- 
cation, supposing it to exist, would be an 
extreme right within the Union, and is 
necessarily temporary in its efi"ects, and 
promptly tends to the termination of the 
difficulty upon which it arises. And this 
settlement may occur by the action of 
our complex system of government, in 
various ways. It may be in the way of 
some compromise of existing difficulties; 
or in the way of repeal, by one party or 
the other, or the modification of the ob- 
noxious laws; or in the way of some ju- 
dicial decision settling the difficulty or 

which is the true remedy — instead of nuli- 
fication by an appeal to the people at the 
polls, who are the source of all power in 
free governments, and by obedience to 
their decision when rendered by voting 
instead of by fighting; or, at the worst, 
by an appeal to arms; but even in that 
case the result necessarily secures the 
continuance of the pre-existing system of 
government on the restoration of peace, 
let that peace be by victory on which 
side you please. The doctrine of nulli- 
fication stands related to the doctrine of 
State Rights, precisely as the doctrine of 
consolidation stands related to the old 
Federal doctrine of a strong Central Gov- 



trnment. In both cases thejtheory of a 
great party has been pushed to a logical 
absurdity, which subverted our political 
Bystem. That the will of the greater part 
should prevail, and that the smaller parts 
should have the power of appeal to this 
will, at the polls, and in judgment upon 
every principal of civil and political liberty 
— was the ultimate form in which this great 
doctrine entered into the political creed of 
that old llepublican party which came into 
power with Mr. Jefierson in 1801, and was 
expounded as they held it in those famous 
resolutions of Kentucky and Virginia in 
the latter part of the last century. Its 
eonnection with the whole theory of every 
mixed political system is not only abso- 
lute but is vital. More especially is it so 
with our complex system. It has been 
carried — as it stands connected with the 
constitutional, and much more with the 
reserved rights of the States, to an ex- 
treme on that side — opposite to the ex- 
treme of consolidation. But even in its 
extremest form, it bears no proportion in 
mischief to the doctrine of secession. — 
Considered in its true and original form, 
I judge it to be indispensable to the 
preservation of our political system ; and 
that the opposite mode of interpreting 
our political duties, and rights, and reme- 
dies, terminates in subjugating the States 
to theGeneral Government, and in subju- 
gating both the General Government and 
the exposi'ion of every political principle, 
to the Supreme Court of the United States. 
The former system is natural and perma- 
nent, the latter is absurd, and invites 
rebellion. This great phenomenon has 
occurred in this country, that, by reason 
of the extraordinary ability of some of 
the advocates of the system which passed 
away in 1801, it has assumed a new form 
and a new life in general opinion; and 
seconded by the peculiar constitution of 
the Supremo Court of the United States, 
the old llepublican or Democratic notions 
upon this great subject, though constantly 
triumphant in the country ,have been con- 
stantly disallowed in the interpretations 
of that Court. I judge that the doctrine 



of secession is an extreme reaction against 
this Federal interpretation of the rela- 
tions of the States to each other and to 
the nation. For when you arrive at an 
interpretation which is final, and hateful 
to immense parties and interests; and 
there is no remedy but aims, secession, or 
absolute submission ; the expression of 
the popular will against the interpreta- 
tion you have made, brings society to a 
condition, that in an excitable race and 
amongst a free people, can hardly be ex- 
pected to be safe or easy to be managed. 
You have, therefore, this perilous and 
extraordinary claim of the right of se- 
cession under this extreme reaction, dif- 
fering absolutely from the idea of the old 
State Rights party, and differing abso- 
lutely even from nullification itself. 

Secession is a proceeding which begins 
by tearing to pieces the whole fabric of 
Government, both social and political. — 
It begins by rendering all redress of all 
possible evils utterly impossible under 
the system that exists, for its very object 
is to destroy that existence. It begins 
by provoking war, and rendering its oc- 
currence apparently inevitable, and its 
termination well nigh impossible. Its 
very design is not to reform the adminis- 
tration of existing laws, not to obtain 
their repeal or modification ; but to anni- 
hilate the institutions of the country, 
and to make many nations out of one. — 
If it is the Constitutional right of any 
State to do this, then wo have no national 
Government and never had any. Then, 
also, it is perfectly idle to speak of new 
Constitutions, since the new Constitu- 
tions can have no more force than the 
Constitution already despised and dis- 
obeyed. Then, also, the possibility is 
ended — ended in the very theory of the 
case, and illustrated in the utter failure 
of its practice — of uniting llepublican 
freedom with national strength, in any 
country or under any form of govern- 
ment. But according to my belief, and 
according to the universal belief of the 
American people but a little while ago, 
no such right, legal or Constitutional, as 



that of secession, does or can exist under 
any form of government, and least of all 
under such institutions as ours. 

And, first of all, no State in this Union 
ever had any sovereignty at all, inde- 
pendent of, and except as they were, 
United States. When they speak of re- 
covering their sovereignty — when they 
Bpeak of returning to their condition as 
sovereigns in whirh they were before 
they were members of the Confederacy 
called at first the United Colonies and 
then the United States; they speak of a 
thing that has no existence — they speak 
of a thing that is historically without 
foundation. They were not States ; they 
were colonies of the British, the Span- 
ish, the French, th*- Dutch Governments; 
they were colonies granted by Koyal 
charter to parficular individuals or par- 
ticular companies. Pennsylvania was 
the estate, th« property of William Penn ; 
Georgia, the larger part, perhaps the 
whole of it, Mf fien. Oglethorpe. They 
were settled under charters to individu- 
als and to companies — settled as colonies 
of foreign kings and States by their sub- 
jects. As such they revolted ; as such, 
before their revolt, they united in a 
Continental Government more or less 
complete. As such United Colonies, 
they pronounced that famous Declara- 
tion of Independence which, after a 
heroic struggle ol' ^even 'years, still as 
United Colonies, thoy made good. That 
great Washington, who led that great 
war, was (he Commander-in-Chief for 
and in behalf of these United Colo- 
nies. As such they were born States.— 
The treaty of peace, that made them in- 
dependent States, was concluded with 
them all together as the United States. 
What sovereignty did Kentucky ever 
have except the sovereignty that she has 
as a State of these United States, born at 
the same moment a State of the Ameri- 
can Union and a separate sovereign 
State? Wo were a district of Virginia. 
We became a Sfute, and we became one 
of the United ^-'ates at the same mo- 
ment, for the same purpose, and for good 



and all. What I mean by this is to 
point out the fact, that the complex sys- 
tem of government which we have in thin 
country, did always, does now, and in the 
nature of the case, must contemplate 
these States as united into a common 
Government, and that common Govern- 
ment as really a part of our political 
system, as the particular institutions of 
the separate sovereignties are a oart of 
our political system. And while, as you 
will observe, I have attempte'd, while re- 
pudiating the doctrine of nullification, 
to vindicate that doctrine of State rio-hts, 
which, as I firmly believe, is an integral 
and indispensable part of our political 
.system ; yet on the other hand, that the 
doctrine that we are a nation, and that 
we have a national government, is, and 
always was, just as truly a part of our 
system as the other. And our political 
system always stood as much upon the 
basis that we are a nation, as it stood 
upon the basis that that nation is com- 
posed of sovereign States. They were 
born into both relations; so born that 
each State is equally and forever, by 
force of its very existence and the man- 
ner thereof, both a part of this Ameri- 
can nation and also a sovereign State of 
itself. The people, therefore, can no 
more legally throw off their national al- 
legiance, than they can legally throw oflF 
their State allegiance. Nor can any 
State any more legally absolve the alle- 
giance of its people to the nation, than 
the nation can legally absolve the alle- 
giance due by the people to the State 
they live in. Either attempt, considered 
in any legal, in any Coudtitutional, in 
any historical light, is pure madness. 

Now the pretext of founding the right 
of secession upon the right to change or 
abolish the government, which is Con- 
stitutionally secured to the people of the 
nation and the States, seems to me — and 
I say it with all the respect due to others — 
to be both immoral and absurd. Ab- 
surd, since they who claim to exercise it 
are, according to the very statement of 
the case, but an insignificant minority of 



those in whom the real right resides. It 
is a right vested by God, and recognized 
by our Constitutions as residing in the 
greater part of those who are citizens 
under the Constitution which they change 
or abolisli. But, what in the name of 
God, and all the possible and all the im- 
aginable arrogance of South Carolina, 
could lead her to believe that she is the 
major part of all the people that profess 
allegiance it the Constitution of the 
United States? And it is immoral, be- 
cause it is trifling with the sacred rights 
of others, with the most solemn obliga- 
tions on our own part, and the most vital 
interests of all concerned. And it is 
both immoral and absurb in one, because 
as a political pretext, its use in this 
manner invalidates and renders perilous 
and odious, the grandest contribution of 
modern times to the science of govern- 
ment, and therein to the peace of so- 
ciety, the security of liberty and the 
progress of civilization ; namely, the 
giving Constitutional validity to this an- 
tural right of man to change or to abol- 
ish the government under which they 
live, by voting, when the major part see 
fit to do so. It is trifling with this great 
natural right, legalized in all our Ame- 
rican Constitutions, fatally caricaturing 
and recklessly converting it into the most 
terrible engine of organized legal de- 
struction. More than that ; it is impos- 
sible, in the very nature of the case and 
in the very nature of government, that 
any such legal power or any such Con- 
stitutional right could exist ; because its 
existence presupposes law to have changed 
its nature and to have become mere ad- 
vice; and presupposes government to have 
changed its nature and ceasing to be a 
permanent ordinance of God, to become 
a temporary instrument of evil in the 
hands of factions as they successively 
arise. Above all places under heaven, 
no such right of destruction can exist 
under our American Constitutions, since 
it is they that have devised this very 
remedy of voting instead of fighting; 
they that have made this natural right a 



Constitutional right ; they that have done 
it for the preservation and not for the 
ruin of society. And it has preserved 
for more than seventy years the noblest 
form of human society, in constant se- 
curity; and it could, if justly exercised, 
preserve it forever. 

But let us go a little deeper still. It 
can not be denied that the right of self- 
preservation, both in men and States, is 
a supreme right. In private persons, it 
is a right regulated by law in all commu- 
nities that have laws. Amongst nations, 
there is no common supreme authority, 
and it must be regulated in their inter- 
course with each other, by the discretion 
of each ; and arms are the final appeal. 
In our system of government, there 
is ample provision made. In Jail dis- 
putes between any State and a foreign 
nation, the General Government will 
protect and redress the State. In 
disputes between two States, the Supreme 
Court is the Constitutional arbiter. It 
is only in disputes that may arise ^be- 
tween the General Government and a par- 
ticular State, that any serious difference 
of opinion as to tbe remedy, has mani- 
fested itself in this country ; and on that 
subject it is the less necessary that I add 
anything to what has been said when 
speaking of nullification, as the grounds 
of our existing difliculties are not between 
the disaffected States and the General Gov- 
ernment chiefly, if at all; but they are 
difiieulties, rather founded on opposite 
States of public opinion touching the in- 
stitution of negro slavery, in the North- 
ern and in the Southern States. It may 
confidently be asserted that if the power 
of nullification, or the power of secession, 
or both of them, were perfectly Consti- 
tutional rights, neither of them should 
be, under any circumstances, wantonly 
exercised. Nor should either of them, 
most especially the right of secession, 
ever be exercised except under extreme 
necessity. But if these powers, or either 
of them, is a mere usurpation founded 
upon no right whatever, then no State 
may resort to rebellion or revolution 



without, in the first place, such a just and 
necessary cause as may not be otherwise 
maintained ; or, in the second place, with- 
out such a prospect of success as justifies 
the evil of rebellion or revolution ; or 
else such intolerable evils as justify the 
most desperate attempts. Now it is my 
profound conviction that nothing has oc- 
curred, that nothing exists, which justifies 
that revolution which has occurred in 
South Carolina, and which seems to be 
impending in other Southern States. — 
Beyond all doubt, nothing has occurred 
of this description, connected with any 
other interest or topic, except that of ne- 
gro slavery ; and connected with that, my 
deep assurance is, that the just and nec- 
essary cause of the slave States, may be 
otherwise maintained than by secession, 
revolution or rebellion ; nay, that it may 
be incomparably better maintained oth- 
erwise; nay, that it cannot be maintained 
itt that way at all, and that the attempt to 
do so will be fatal as regards the avowed 
object, and pregnant with incalculable 
evils besides. 

In such discussions as these, the na- 
ture of the institution of slavery is per- 
feotly immaterial. So long as the Union 
of the States survives, the constitutional 
guaranty and the Federal power, which 
have proved adequate for more than sev- 
enty years, are that much added to what- 
ever other force States or sections may 
possess to protect their rights. Nor is 
there, in the nature of the case, any rea- 
son why States with slaves, and States 
without slaves should not abide together 
in peace, as portions of the same great 
nation, as they have done from the be- 
ginning. The unhallowed passions of 
men, the fanaticism of the times, the mu- 
tual injuries and insults which portions 
of the people have inflicted on each other, 
the cruel use which political parties have 
made of unnatural and transient popu- 
lar excitements, and, I must add, the un- 
just, offensive and unconstitutional enact- 
ments by various State Legislatures at 
the North ; the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise by Congress; the attempt 



of the Supreme Court to settle political 
principles, deemed to be of vast impor- 
tance by all parties, in the Dred Scott 
case, which principles were not in the 
case at all ; the subsequent conduct of 
the Federal Government, and of the peo- 
ple in Kansas ; the total overthrow of 
the Whig and American parties, the di- 
vision and defeat of the Democratio 
party, and the triumph of the Republi- 
can party ; the ordinance of secession of 
South Carolina ; the agitation pervading 
the whole nation, especially the greater 
part of the Southern States; and to 
crown all and if possible, to make all 
desperate, the amazing conduct of the 
President of the United States amidst 
these great disorders : this is the sad 
outline of this slavery agitation, the pos- 
ture of which for a moment is thus exhi- 
bited, no one knowing how soon new and 
fatal steps may hurry us still farther. — 
What I assert in the face of so much 
that is painful and full of peril, and whafe 
I confidently rely will be the verdict of 
posterity, is that all this, terrible as it is, 
affords no justification for the secession 
of any single State of the Union — none 
for the disruption of the American Union, 
They who make the attempt will find in 
it no remedy for the evils from which 
they flee. They who goad otrliers to this 
fatal step, will find that they have them- 
selves erred exceedingly. They who 
have had the lead in both acts of mad- 
ness, have no hope for good from coming 
ages, half so great as that they may be 
utterly forgotten. Posterity will receive 
with scorn every plea that can be made 
for thirty millions of free people, profess- 
ing to be christian, in extenuation of the 
unparalleled folly of their self-destruc- 
tion, by reason that they could not deal 
successfully with three or four millions 
of African slaves, scattered amongst 
them. Oh ! everlasting infamy, that the 
children of Washington did not know 
how to be free. Oh ! degradation still 
deeper, that the children of God did not 
not know how to be just and to forbear 
with one another. 



8 



It is said, however, it is now too late. 
The evil is already done. South Caro- 
lina has already gone; Florida, it is 
most likely went yesterday, or will go to- 
day, even while we are i^leading with 
one another, and with God to put a bet- 
ter mind in her. Soon, it may be possi- 
ble within the present month, all the cot- 
ton States will go. We, it is added, by 
reason of being a slave State, must also 
go. Our destiny, they say, our interest, 
our duty, our all, ii bound up with theirs, 
and we must go together. If this be 
your mind, distinctly made up, then the 
whole services of this day are a national 
mockery of God ; a national attempt to 
make our passionate impulses assume the 
dignity of divine suggestions, and thus 
seduce the Ruler of the universe into com- 
plicity with our sins and follies, through 
which all our miseries are inflicted upon 
as. Let it be admitted that a certain 
number of States, and that considerable, 
will attempt to form a Southern Confed- 
eracy, or to form as many new sovereign- 
ties as there are seceding States. Let it 
be assumed that either of those results 
is achieved, and that either by way of 
peace or by war. Let all be admitted. 
What then? Thirteen States by their 
delegates formed the present Constitution 
more than- seventy years ago. By the 
terms of the Constitution itself, it was to 
be enforced when any nine of those thir- 
teen States adopted it, whether by con- 
vention of their people or otherwise, is 
immaterial to the present matter. Thir- 
teen States made the Constitution by 
their delegates ; a clause is inserted in it 
that it shall go into effect when any nine 
of the thirteen States adopt it, let any 
four refuse as they might. If they had 
refused what would have happened,w^uld 
have been, that these four States, born 
States, and born United States, by the 
Declaration of Independence, by the war 
of the revolution, by the peace with 
Great Britain, and by the articles of con- 
federation, would by a common agree- 
ment among the whole thirteen have re- 
fused to go further, or to make any 



stronger national government, while the 
other nine would have gone further, and 
made that stronger national govern- 
ment. But suoh was the desire of all 
parties that there should be no separation 
of the States at all, that the whole thir- 
teen unanimously adopted the new Con- 
stitution, putting a clause into it that it 
should not go into effect unless a majori- 
ty so great as nine to four would sign it. 
I say if a minority of States had not 
adopted the new Constitution, it would 
have occurred that they would have 
passed, by common consent, into a new 
condition, and, for the first time, have 
become separate sovereign States. As 
you well know, none of them refused per- 
manently. What I make this statement 
for, is to show that, taking: that principle 
as just and permanent, as clearly laid 
down in the Constitution, it requires at 
least.eleven States of the existing thirty- 
three States, to destroy, or affect in the 
slightest degree, the question as to wheth- 
er or not the remaining States are the 
United States of America under the same 
Constitution. Twenty-two States, ac- 
cording to that principle, left after the 
eleven had seceded, would be as really 
the United States of America under that 
Federal Constitution, as they were be- 
fore, according to the fundamental prin- 
ciple involved in the original mode of 
giving validity to the Constitution. Ken- 
tucky would still be as really one of these 
United States of America as she was at 
first, when, as a district of Virginia,which 
was one of the nine adopting States, she 
became, as such district, a part thereof; 
and, by consequence, a secession of less 
than eleven States, can, in no event and, 
upon no hypothesis, even so much as em- 
barrass Kentucky in determining for her- 
self what her duty, her safety and her 
honor require her to do. 

This fact is so perfectly obvious that, I 
presume, if the New England States, in- 
stead of the cotton States, were to revolt 
and establish a separate confederacy, 
there is not a man in the State of Ken- 
tucky who would be led thereby to sup- 



'9 



pose that our relations with the Union 
and the Constitution were in the slightest 
degree affected ; or that they we on 
that account under the slightest obliga- 
tion to revolt also. It may sound harsh, 
but I am very much inclined to think 
that there are many thousands of men in 
Kentucky, who might be apt to suppose 
that the secession of the New England 
States, would be a capital reason why no- 
body else should secede. It is the prin- 
ciple, however, which I am attempting 
to explain. 

The answer to this view, I am aware 
is, that we are a slave State, and that our 
relations are, therefore, necessarily dif- 
ferent with respect to other slave States, 
as compared with the free States, or 
with the nation at large. The reply to 
which is various : First. The institu- 
tion of slavery as it exists in this country 
presents a threefold and very distinct as- 
pect. First, the aspect of it in those 
States whose great staples are rice, sugar 
and cotton, commonly, and well enough 
expressed by calling them the cotton 
States. Then the aspect of it presented 
by those States in portions of which 
those staples are raised, and in other por- 
tions of which they are not, which we 
may well enough call the mixed portion 
of the slave States. And then its aspect 
in those slave States which are not pro- 
ducers of those great staples, in the 
midst of which, and out of which these 
great commotions come. What I assert 
is, that the relation of slavery to the 
community, and the relation of the com- 
munity by reason of .slavery to the Gen- 
eral Government and the world, is wide- 
ly different in all three of these classes 
of States. The relation of slavery to 
the community, to the government and 
to our future, in Kentucky, in Virginia, 
in Maryland, in Delaware, is widely dif- 
ferent from the relation of slavery in all 
these respects, in Louisiana, in South 
Carolina, and in all the other cotton 
States. In the meantime, also, the rela- 
tion is different from both of those, where- 
in it exists in what I have called the 



mixed States; in Arkansas, part of which 
is a farming conntry, and a part of which 
thoroughly planting ; in Tennessee, part 
cotton, and the eastern part a mountain- 
ous and farming country ; in Texas and 
North Carolina, where similar facts ex- 
ist, and, perhaps, in some other States. 
What I desire is that you get the idea 
I have of the matter ; that while it is 
true all the slave States have certain ties 
and sympathies between them which are 
real, and ought not to be broken, yet, on 
the other hand, it is extremely easy to 
carry this idea to a fatal and a false ex- 
tent, and to ruin ourselves forever under 
the illusion begotten thereby. In Ken- 
tucky the institution of slavery exists 
about in the proportion of one slave to 
four white people, and the gap between 
the two races is widening at every cen- 
sus. In South Carolina there are about 
five slaves to three white persons, and the 
increment is on the slave side. In the 
cotton States I know of no way in which 
the institution of slavery can be dealt 
with at all, except by keeping the rela- 
tion as it stands, as an integral portion 
of the body politic, unmanageable except 
in the present relation of the negro to the 
white man; and in this posture it is the 
duty of the nation to protect and defend 
the cotton States. In regard to Ken- 
tucky, the institution of slavery is in 
such a position that the people of Ken- 
tucky can do with it whatever they may 
see fit, both now and at any future peri- 
od, without being obliged, by reason of 
it, to resort to any desperate expedient,in 
any direction. 

The state of things I have sketched, 
necessarily produces a general resem- 
blance indeed, because slavery h gene- 
ral ; but, at the same time, innumerable 
diversities, responsive to the varying con- 
dition of slavery, of its products, and of 
its relative influence in the body politic 
in the different slave States. And you 
never committed a greater folly than you 
will commit, if, disregarding these things, 
you allow this single consideration — that 
you are a slave State — to swallow up 



10 



every other consideration, and control 
your whole action in this great crisis. — 
We, in Kentucky are tolerant of opinion. 
Inform yourselves of what is passing of 
an opposite character throughout South 
Carolina, and reflect on the change that 
roust pass on you, before you would be 
prepared to tear down the most venera- 
ble institutions, to insult the proudest 
emblems of your country's glory, and to 
treat consfir.utions and laws as if they 
were playthings for children; before you 
are prepared to descend from your pres- 
ent noble posture, and surrender yourself 
to the guidance and dictation of such 
counsels and such statesmen, as. rule this 
disunicn movement. Nothing seems to 
rae more obvious, and nothing is more 
important to be pressed upon your arten- 
tion at this moment, than that the non- 
cotton States stand in a position radi- 
cally different, in all respects, from the 
position in which the cotton States stand, 
both with regard to the institution of 
slavery, and with regard to the balance 
of the nation. The result is that all 
these States, the cotton States, and the 
mixed States, and the non-cotton slave 
States, and the free States, may enjoy 
peace, and may enjoy prosperity under a 
common government, and in a common 
Union, as they have done from the be- 
ginning ; where the rights of all and the 
interests of all may be respected and pro- 
tected, and yet where the interests of ev- 
ery portion must be regulated by some 
general consideration of the interests 
which are common to everybody. On 
the other hand, in a confederacy where 
cotton is the great idea and end, it is ut- 
terly impossible for the mixed, much 
more for the non-cotton States, to pro- 
tect adequately any of their rights, ex- 
cept the right of slavery, to carry out 
any of their purposes except purposes 
connected with slavery, to inaugurate 
any system of policy, or even to be free, 
otherwise than as they servilely follow 
the lead, and bow to the rule of the cot- 
ton States. The very instant you enter a 
confederacy in which all is regulated and 



created by the supreme interest of cot- 
ton, everything precious and distinctive 
of you is jeoparded. Do you want the 
slave trade re-opened ? Do you want 
free trade and direct taxation ? Do you 
want some millions more of African can- 
nibals thrown amongst you, broadcast 
throughout the whole slave States? Do 
you want to begin a war which shall end 
when you have taken possession of the 
whole Southern part of this continent, 
down to the Isthmus 'of Darien ? If 
your design is to accept the principles, 
purposes and policy which are open- 
ly avowed in the interest of secession, 
and which you see exhibited on a small 
scale, but in their essence, in South Caro- 
lina — if that is your notion of regulated 
freedom and the perfect security of life 
and property; if that is your understand- 
ing of high national prosperity, where 
the great idea is more negroes, more cot- 
ton, direct taxes, free imports from all 
nations, and the conquest of all outlay- 
ing land that will bring cotton ; then, 
undoubtedly, Kentucky is no longer what 
she has been, and her new career, begin- 
ning with secession, leads her far away 
from her strength and her renown. 

The second suggestion I have to make 
to you is, that if the slave line is made 
the line of division, all the slave States 
seceding from the Union, and all the free 
States standing unitedly by the Union : 
what I assert in that ease is, that the pos- 
sibility of the perpetuity of negro slavery 
in any border State terminates at once. 
In our affected zeal for slavery, we will 
have taken the most effectual means of 
extinguishing it; and that in the most 
disastrous of all possible ways. On the 
contrary, if this Union is to be saved, it 
is by the cordial sympathy of the border 
States on the one side and on the other 
side of the slave line that it must be sav- 
ed. We have nothing to hope for from 
the extreme States on either side — noth- 
ing from the passionate violence of the 
extreme Soutb — nothing from the turbu- 
lent fanaticism of the extreme North. It 
is along that slave line and in the spirit 



11 



of mutual confidence, and the sense of 
common interest of the people on the 
North and on the South of that line, that 
the nation must seek the instruments of 
its safety. It is Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, on the one 
side ; and Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, 
Kentucky, Missouri — God send that I 
might add, with confidence, Tennessee 
and North Carolina, on the other side : 
these are the States that are competent to 
eavo this Union. Nothing, therefore, 
can be more suicidal than for the border 
slave States to adopt any line of conduct 
which can justly deprive them of the 
sympathy and confidence of the border 
free States — now largely possessed by 
them. And nothing is more certain than 
that a patriotic devotion to the Union, and 
a willingness to do all that honorable men 
should do, or moderate men ask in order 
to preserve it, is as strongly prevalent at 
this moment amongst the people of the 
border free States, as among those of the 
border slave States. The great central 
States I have enumerated, must neces- 
sarily control the fate both of the nation 
and of the continent, whenever they act 
in concert ; and the fate, both of the na- 
tion and of the continent, is utterly in- 
scrutable after the division of them on 
the slave line — except tbat we know when 
Samson is shorn of his strength, the 
enemies of Israel and of God will make 
the land desolate. Fronting on the At- 
lantic Ocean through many degrees of 
latitude, running back across the conti- 
nent so as to include an area larger than 
all western Europe, and finer than any 
of equal extent upon the globe, embrac- 
ing a population inferior to none on earth, 
and sufficiently numerous at present to 
constitute a great nation ; it is this im- 
mense power, free, to a great extent, from 
the opposite and intractable fanaticisms 
of the extreme States on both sides of it, 
that is charged with the preservation of 
of our national institutions, and with 
them our national power and glory. — 
There are two aspects of the case thus 
put, in either of which success by peace 



ful means, is impossible. First, if these 
great central States fail to apprehend this 
part of the great mission committed to 
them; secondly, if the cotton States, fol- 
lowing the example of South Carolina — 
or the Northern States adhering to ex- 
treme purposes in the opposite direction 
— by either means render all peaceful ad- 
justment impossible. 

But even in that case, the mission of 
these great States is not ended. If under 
the curse of God, and the madness of the 
extreme Northern and Southern States, 
the preservation of the Union should be 
impossible, then it belongs to this im- 
mense central power to reconstruct the na- 
tion upon the slave line as its central idea, 
and thus perpetuate our institutions, our 
principles and our hopes, with an un- 
changed nationality. For even they who 
act in the mere interests of slavery, ought 
to see, that after the secession of the cot- 
ton States, the border slave States are 
obliged, even for the sake of slavery, to 
be destroyed, or to adhere to the Union 
as long as any Union exists ; and that if 
the Union were utterly destroyed, its re- 
construction upon the slave line is the 
solitary condition, on which slavery can 
exist in security anywliere, or can exist at 
all in any border State. 

I have considered three possible solu- 
tions of the existing state of things. The 
preservation of the Union as it is ; the 
probable secession of the cotton slave 
States, and the effect thereof upon the 
Union, and upon the course Kentucky 
ought to take ; the total destruction of 
the Union, and its reconstruction upon 
the slave line. I have considered the 
whole matter, from the point of view un- 
derstood to be taken by the President of 
the United States, namely : that he judges 
there is no power in the General Govern- 
ment to prevent, by force, its own disso- 
lution by means of the secession of the 
States ; and I have done this, because 
however ruinous or absurd any one may 
suppose the views of the President to be, 
it is nevertheless under their sway that 
the first acts of our impending revolu- 



12 



tions are progres!?ing. Under the same 
helpless aspect of the General Govern- 
luent, there remain two more possible 
solutions of the posture and duty of 
Kentucky, and other States similarly sit- 
uated. The first of these i^, that in the 
progress of events, it may well become 
the border slave States to unite them- 
selves into a separate confederacy ; the 
second is, that it may well become Ken- 
tucky, under various contingencies, to 
assume a separate sovereign position, and 
act by herself. Having clearly stated my 
own conclusions, I will only say that the 
first of these two results is not one to be 
sought as desirable itself, but only as ^m 
alternative to be preferred to more dan- 
gerous arrangements. For my unaltera- 
ble conviction is, that the slave line is the 
only permanent and secure basis of a 
confederacy for the slave States, and es- 
pecially for the border slaee States; and 
that the Union of free and slave States, 
in the same confederacy, is the indispen- 
sable condition of the peaceful and secure 
existence of slavery. As to the possible 
isolation of Kentucky, this also, it seems 
to me, is not a result to be sought. If it 
should occur as the alternative to evils 
still greater, Kentucky ought to embrace 
it with calmness and dignity, and await- 
ing the progress of events, show by her 
wisdom, her courage, her moderation, her 
invincible rectitude, both to this age and 
to all that are to come, how fully shb under- 
stood, in the midst of a gainsaying and 
backsliding generation, that no people 
ever performed anything glorious who 
did not trust in God, who did not love 
their country, and who were not faithful 
to their oaths. 

It seems to me, therefore, that the im- 
mediate duty of Kentucky may clearly 
be stated in very few words : 

1. To stand by the Constitution and 
the Union of the country to the last ex- 
tremity. 2. To prevent, as for the mo- 
ment, the impending and immediate dan- 
ger, all attempts to seduce her, all attempts 
to terrify her into the taking of any stejy, 
inconsistent with her own Constitution 



and laws; any step disregardful of the 
Constitution and laws of the United 
States; any step which can possibly com- 
promise her position or draw her on. oth- 
erwise than by her own free choice, delib- 
erately expressed at the polls, according 
to her existing laws and Constitution, 
whereby she will choose her own destiny. 
3. To settle in her heart that the rending 
of this Union on the slave line is, for her, 
whatever it may be for others, the most 
fatal issue that the times can have ; and 
the doing thi.> in such away as to subject 
her to the dominion of the cotton States 
for all time to come, is the very worst 
form of that fatal issue. 

After all, iny friendft — after all, we have 
the great promise of God that all things 
shall work together for good to them that 
love him. I do not know but that it may 
be the mind of God, and his divine pur- 
pose, to break this Union up, and to make 
of it other nations, that shall at last be 
mora powerful than it, unitedly, would 
have been. I do not know, I do not pre- 
tend to say, how the Lord will use the 
passions of men to glorify his name. He 
restrains the remainder of wrath, and will 
cause the wrath of man to praise Him. 
We have His divine assurance that all 
nations that have gone before us, and all 
that will foilo 7 us, and we ourselves, by 
our rise, by our progress, and, alas ! by 
our decay and ruin, are but instruments 
of His infinite purpose, and means in His 
adorable providence, whereby the ever- 
lasting reign of Messiah, the Christ of 
God, is to be made absolute and universal. 

Great, then, is our consolation, as we 
tremble for our country, to be confident 
in our Lord ! Great is our comfort as we 
bewail the miseries which have befallen 
our glorious inheritance, to know that the 
Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! Infin- 
itely precious is the assurance, amidst the 
trials now impending, and the woes which 
threaten us, that the heroic self-devotion 
with which our personal duty is dis- 
charged, is one part of our fitness to be- 
come partakers of the inheritance of the 
saints in light! 



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